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Politics

Weiner admits to sexting again

Enlarge ImageRequest to buy this photoJohn Minchillo | Associated PressNew York mayoral candidate Anthony Weiner says at a news conference that he will not drop out of the race despite newly discovered lewd messages. His wife, Huma Abedin, is at his side.

Your Right to Know

NEW YORK — Anthony Weiner vowed yesterday to stay in the race for New York City mayor despite
admitting to sending sexually explicit messages and photos to women even after the online sex-chat
scandal that cost him his congressional seat.

With his wife standing by his side, Weiner, a Democrat, told a news conference that he had sent
some of the newly revealed lewd chats and pictures, published this week by a gossip website, but he
appeared determined to disappoint opponents asking him to bow out.

“I want to bring my vision to the people of the city of New York. I hope they are willing to
still continue to give me a second chance,” Weiner said shortly after the racy correspondence
surfaced.

Weiner, 48, resigned from Congress in June 2011 after admitting that he had used Twitter and
other social media to send lewd pictures of himself to women he met online.

Earlier yesterday, Weiner was vague about the timing and sequence of events, saying in a
statement that “some things that have been posted … are true, and some are not.”

“I said that other texts and photos were likely to come out, and today they have,” he said.

Yesterday’s admission concerned a series of suggestive chats published by gossip website
TheDirty.com on Monday. The website said it obtained the chats and images from a young woman in her
early 20s whose name it withheld.

The website said chats between the two began in July 2012 and extended into this year. Weiner
told the news conference that some of the texts had been sent after his resignation.

Weiner’s wife, Huma Abedin, a close aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, smiled
during the news conference and spoke about why she will continue to support him.

“I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as he has said from the beginning, ‘We
are moving forward,'" Abedin said.

The development could complicate Weiner’s campaign for mayor less than two months before the
Sept. 10 Democratic primary.

Weiner has been running neck-and-neck in public opinion polls with City Council Speaker
Christine Quinn, but many voters surveyed say they have an unfavorable view of him.

In launching his mayoral campaign in May, Weiner said he hoped that voters would give him a
second chance. Commentators said New Yorkers might not be as forgiving as he hopes. “Voters are
going to say, ‘What is wrong with this guy?'" said Douglas Muzzio, a political-science professor at
Baruch College. “It demonstrates some kind of real psychological problem.”